Woolwich Update: Victim To Be Named

Update 12.45pm: Police have raided addresses in Greenwich and Lincolnshire. The BBC has named one of the suspects as 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo. Questions had been raised about the police response time: it supposedly took 20 minutes for an armed team to arrive. However, the police have now reported the initial response time was 9 minutes and the armed response 14 minutes.

Original article

The victim of yesterday's attack in Woolwich will be named later today.

The attack took place at 2.20pm yesterday in John Wilson Street, Woolwich, near the Royal Artillery Barracks. From eye-witness accounts, it appears that the men deliberately ran their car into the victim, before attacking him with knives and a cleaver. The pair remained on the scene, talking to witnesses, while waiting for police to arrive. One of the attackers was filmed making political statements, saying he wanted to start a war in London:

We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reasons we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth. We must fight them. I apologise that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don't care about you.

Several witnesses acted with great courage. Ingrid Loyau-Kennett confronted both of the attackers in turn, while they were still clutching bloodied weapons.

I said 'right now it is only you versus many people, you are going to lose, what would you like to do?’ and he said I would like to stay and fight.

I think it's very important that...the people of London should take their cue from the behaviour of the people of Woolwich yesterday, who showed such astonishing natural courage in dealing with an appalling event, and who stood up to those killers. And I think that that's the spirit of London, and that's what I would call on people to do today - go about their lives in the normal way.

The two suspects, both shot by police, spent the evening under armed guard in hospital. One is thought to be in a serious condition.

The Prime Minister earlier chaired a session of security committee COBRA, attended by senior politicians, police, the Mayor of London and MI5. London-based armed forces are on a higher state of alert. Military personnel have been told not to wear uniforms until further notice, according to Sky News.